North Carolina · Nonprofit
The Learning Collaborative
The Learning Collaborative (North Carolina) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,722,199 to it, the largest being MECKLENBURG PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDREN ($958,497). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 22
- Grants received
- $2.7M
- Net assets
- $2.3M
What The Learning Collaborative does
Mission
The Learning Collaborative's mission is to instill children with curiosity, confidence, and a love of learning while embracing and strengthening their families. This is accomplished through tuition-free, high-quality Preschool and Pre-K programming for children, and required engagement in Family Success for parents.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Preschool, Pre-K, and Family Success programsIn 2024-25, 72 children and 116 parents enrolled in TLC programs. All children received a high-quality school readiness Preschool or Pre-K education. Children are assessed pre- and post- to show developmental progress and screened for additional support services, which are provide on-site. Required parental engagement in Family Success provides workshops, support groups, one-on-one coaching and counseling to empower parents to build stronger, more self-sufficient families.
$1,125,343 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,125,343.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $2.2M to $2.3M (+8%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2021 43% · 2022 55% · 2023 39% · 2024 39% · 2025 47%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of The Learning Collaborative’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Board chair
Rebecca McPhail
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $250k → $390k.
5 of 22 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 21% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of The Learning Collaborative’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
The Learning Collaborative leans on a few funders — its largest provides 35% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
95% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund The Learning Collaborative.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 38% · 2018 43% · 2019 43% · 2020 32% · 2021 31% · 2022 41% · 2023 35% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
64% of The Learning Collaborative's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 77% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
97% of The Learning Collaborative's grant income comes from North Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $565k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
The Learning Collaborative runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 9,615 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,615 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like The Learning Collaborative
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Learning Collaborative: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds The Learning Collaborative?
- The Learning Collaborative (North Carolina) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,722,199 to it, the largest being MECKLENBURG PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDREN ($958,497). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Learning Collaborative have?
- IRS filings report 22 organizations giving $2,722,199 in grants to The Learning Collaborative, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Learning Collaborative?
- MECKLENBURG PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDREN is the largest funder on record, with $958,497 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Learning Collaborative find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Learning Collaborative →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 22 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing